Canada Day 2018

Waterloo Regional Heritage Awards 2018

Waterloo Regional Heritage Awards

This year the Water­loo His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety and the Water­loo Region­al Her­itage Foun­da­tion com­bined their annu­al meet­ings on 12 May at the Water­loo Region­al Muse­um

The Water­loo Region­al Her­itage Foun­da­tion awards were hand­ed out as part of the Water­loo His­tor­i­cal Society’s meet­ing in the after­noon. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Mary­hill His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety mem­bers Stephanie Mas­sel and Diane Strick­ler who received spe­cial awards.

Stephanie’s Award of Excel­lence was for her many years of ser­vice on the board of the Water­loo Region­al Her­itage Foun­da­tion, and for her advo­ca­cy work on her­itage issues with the KW Asso­ci­a­tion of Real Estate Agents and the City of Kitchener’s plan­ning poli­cies.

Diane received the Dr. Jean Steck­le Award. This award is for excel­lence in her­itage edu­ca­tion and is pre­sent­ed to an indi­vid­ual who has demon­strat­ed lead­er­ship in her­itage edu­ca­tion through teach­ing, writ­ing or by exam­ple, and who has encour­aged and men­tored oth­ers in the under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of the nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al her­itage of Water­loo Region.

Maryhill Historical Society 40th Anniversary/Heritage Day 2017

The Mary­hill His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety cel­e­brat­ed its 40th Anniver­sary on Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 24, 2017 with Mass at St. Boni­face Church, a Cav­al­cade to Way­side Cross­es and Shrines fol­lowed with a won­der­ful lunch. After lunch awards and acknowl­edge­ments were pre­sent­ed to mem­bers who cel­e­brat­ed their 50th and 60th wed­ding anniver­saries and 80th birth­days and for spe­cial work in the com­mu­ni­ty.

The Raf­fle and Silent Auc­tion fund rais­er was a suc­cess. The Mary­hill His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety great­ly thanks the many donors for their gen­er­ous sup­port.

Cultural/Heritage Landscapes in Woolwich/Wellesley Township

WATERLOOREGION — From rolling farm­land to scenic riv­er views, the town­ships of Wool­wich and Welles­ley are rich land­scapes with plen­ty to offer.

Two Uni­ver­si­ty of Water­loo stu­dents hope to iden­ti­fy some of these pic­turesque rur­al scenes as poten­tial cul­tur­al her­itage land­scapes with a new study, and they want your help.

“We’re tak­ing a ground-up approach by ask­ing the com­mu­ni­ty first rather than using expert opin­ion,” said Chris DeGeer, a grad­u­ate plan­ning stu­dent work­ing on the project.

Cul­tur­al her­itage land­scapes are essen­tial­ly geo­graph­i­cal areas that have impor­tance or sig­nif­i­cance to a com­mu­ni­ty. Maybe an area has unique nat­ur­al scenery, per­haps it’s the par­tic­u­lar flo­ra or fau­na present there that makes it valu­able, or maybe it has his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, DeGeer said.

“The def­i­n­i­tion of a land­scape is dif­fer­ent to dif­fer­ent peo­ple.”

When munic­i­pal­i­ties inves­ti­gate a spot for pos­si­ble des­ig­na­tion, they tend to fol­low a set of guide­lines. Near­by res­i­dents are part of the process, but that part usu­al­ly comes after an area is iden­ti­fied by munic­i­pal staff.

“This study will add an extra lay­er of aca­d­e­m­ic research to exist­ing tools,” said Kate Hager­man, super­vi­sor of cul­tur­al her­itage at the Region of Water­loo.

Unlike des­ig­nat­ing a his­toric struc­ture, a cul­tur­al her­itage land­scape des­ig­na­tion is quite dif­fer­ent because of the many mean­ings a land­scape can have for the com­mu­ni­ty.

“It’s an inter­est­ing exer­cise,” Hager­man said. “How do you put a bound­ary around a land­scape?”

The pic­turesque vil­lage of West Mon­trose is the only des­ig­nat­ed cul­tur­al her­itage land­scape that cur­rent­ly exists in both town­ships. The team of researchers, her­itage advo­cates and munic­i­pal staff hopes to pin­point some more.